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What is the best way to remove carbon?
- Thread starter ichthos
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pjsmetana
Jedi Warrior
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Use a wooden or plastic scraper and some solvent. <span style="font-weight: bold"><span style="text-decoration: underline">DONT FORGET YOUR PPE!!!</span></span> After cleaning the best you can with that, you can move on to a BRASS wire brush, used gently, and some steel wool. Take your time and get her as clean as you can without marring up any metal surfaces. There are some other, faster, easier techniques out there, but most of them require many specifics and can result in needing to start over with a new head.
As far as 'what solvent', thats a good question, as I don't know for sure whats for sale and legal any more. But I do know that regular gasoline has worked well, as have some older waterbased solutions. Best thing for this is probably a stroll through the autoparts store and see what they are selling. Who knows, maybe the carbon/grease eating microbes are legal now...
As far as 'what solvent', thats a good question, as I don't know for sure whats for sale and legal any more. But I do know that regular gasoline has worked well, as have some older waterbased solutions. Best thing for this is probably a stroll through the autoparts store and see what they are selling. Who knows, maybe the carbon/grease eating microbes are legal now...
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That's it. Additionally ya do NOT want to get any of it down between the bore and pistons. It'll scar the walls instantly. If the engine were in bits I'd suggest "EasyOff" oven cleaner, the goop not the spray. Rather than take the chance of scoring the bores you could leave it, reassemble and use a spray bottle with water down the carb throats at 3K RPM. That burns off most of the kak in there without the chance the stuff will ruin the bores.
poolboy
Yoda
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Kevin, if the pistons you want to clean are the ones in the engine in your driver, I wouldn't go overboard with the cleaning. I'd loosen some of it and vacuum the debris. Even Bentley says it's OK to leave the carbon around the perimeter.
If it's the spare engine's pistons you want to clean, I say, take them out and examine them or have a machinist examine them before going thru the trouble of cleaning them.
My machinist spotted some things on my pistons and convinced me to replace them with new ones.
Bottom line, I guess would be, if you are just going to swap heads for now, keep everyhing else to a minimum.
If you are going to do a complete rebuild, then that's another story.
If it's the spare engine's pistons you want to clean, I say, take them out and examine them or have a machinist examine them before going thru the trouble of cleaning them.
My machinist spotted some things on my pistons and convinced me to replace them with new ones.
Bottom line, I guess would be, if you are just going to swap heads for now, keep everyhing else to a minimum.
If you are going to do a complete rebuild, then that's another story.
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Now's not the time to tempt fate!
Keep it simple.
pjsmetana
Jedi Warrior
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DrEntropy said:
Great point Doc! If you do happen to get some down there, some compressed air usually handles it. Personally I wouldn't worry about whats on the pistons. I would clean the head fairly well, then do the water misting trick after reassembly.
DrEntropy said:
Yeah, that trick. When Doc suggested this to me about 3 months ago I thought it was ludicrous... but I also thought "what do I have to lose?" so I tried it. And believe it or not, it not only cleaned off 90% of the junk on the head and pistons, it removed the rust that was on cyl#3's rings and unstuck them. Saved me a rebuild, at least for a while. Just from that I no longer leak or burn (much) oil. It starts faster, has more power, and I even get better gas mileage (not that mileage matters much in a weekend warrior sports car). Doc is the one who gave me all the specifics and so on about this trick, so I don't mind passing it on. The more who know, the better... especially in these days of Low-Lead, Ethanol Enriched, Goopity-Goop we are all forced to run.
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Back in the days when "decoking" or "decarbonising" was pretty much a routine maintenance item, many manuals suggested using an old piston ring as a "guide" to your piston-top scraping. That said, nowadays I think Tom's method is as good as any. Along those lines (and I'll try to be careful in wording this) there was the old proverbial "Italian car tuneup" consisting of running the "snot" out of the engine on the highway (kinda like what Tom did, although usually not 2000 miles' worth)!poolboy said:
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A QUART?!?! The spray bottle on wide pattern and a few squirts down each throat with the throttle holding three grand should do... I'd say it would be measured in ounces. It'll stumble and object to the mix but if kept running it should be sufficient to burn off the loose buildup.
If the thing is headed for a tear-down I don't think I'd worry over it! Or give it Andy's treatment. Last time I posted reference about an Italian Tuneup I got piled on for bein' "un-PC". ~WE~ didn't invent the term... it came from racing.
Additionally: ~I'm~ of ITALIAN extraction. I find th' phrase flattering. :wink:
If the thing is headed for a tear-down I don't think I'd worry over it! Or give it Andy's treatment. Last time I posted reference about an Italian Tuneup I got piled on for bein' "un-PC". ~WE~ didn't invent the term... it came from racing.
Additionally: ~I'm~ of ITALIAN extraction. I find th' phrase flattering. :wink:
Don Elliott
Obi Wan
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When I restored my 1958 TR3A from 1987 to 1990, I re-built the engine with new pistons, rings and liners. In 2007, after driving 94,00 miles on the "new" engine, I decided to do another re-build. All I had to do was clean it up and change the rings. Naturally at the same time, I installed new gaskets, new bearing inserts all around, etc. The 4-ring Hapolite pistons from 1990 were very clean. During those 17 summers of driving, I had used un-leaded and there was nothing to "de-coke". I'm certain that modern gasoline leaves your engine cleaner than leaded did during the first life of my engine from 1958 to 1990.
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Tabcon
Jedi Warrior
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Are you going to remove the cylinder head to do this, or do you just want to squirt some type of goop into your intake?
If it's bad enough, I would remove the head and have the chambers soda blasted.
You could probably do the same to the tops of the pistons as well while still in place since baking soda is not abrasive enough to harm the cylinder walls and should dissolve rather easily. You would have to be careful and cover up and/or mask off anything you don't want baking soda in or on.
If it's bad enough, I would remove the head and have the chambers soda blasted.
You could probably do the same to the tops of the pistons as well while still in place since baking soda is not abrasive enough to harm the cylinder walls and should dissolve rather easily. You would have to be careful and cover up and/or mask off anything you don't want baking soda in or on.
